Like many of you around this time, I like to reflect on the year gone by. You will have to pardon the somewhat disjointedness of this post. A lot happens in a year, and my prose is not what it used to be.

December 28th is the 3 year anniversary of the day I took over the Animal Hospital of Chetek from Dr. Carlson. For those of you new to our hospital it may be a surprise that I have only been here for three years, for those of you have been patrons for over a decade it may seem strange that three years have already gone by. I tend to be both surprised that I have only been here three years, and find it bewildering that it has already been three years.

I tend to look at these first few years as time in school; after all I have spent most of the last 3 years learning. Learning how to run the hospital (thank you Amy, Amber, and Tishara for being continuous and sometimes even patient instructors), learning how to handle ever more complicated medical and surgical cases (thank you Dr. Kuchevar for always being ready when I need a second opinion), and of course learning how to be a parent – the kids are now 2 and 4… they can speak and everything, how did that happen? Oh and while I am thanking the staff I should add thank you to Sarah for coming in to a crazy situation and handling it like a rock star. Thank you to Shannon for not shooting me.  And thank you Mari-Lyn for always making me laugh (with you – not at you).

Continuing with the education theme, 2011 was my freshmen year, and like all freshmen I was a bit scared. But it turned out that all that time in school was actually useful – hooray. 2012 was about surviving the end of the world – take that Mayans! We made it while making some pretty big adjustments to how we run things. I.e. the Healthy Pet Program...which is still the only program of its kind in Western Wisconsin. I also learned that I tend to bite off more than I can chew. I had planned on doing weekly video blogs, I think I did one. It is still something I would like to do, but time has a way of catching up.

This brings us to 2013. So much has happened this year that is impossible to comment on all of it. I was able to finally buy a house – in Chetek of course. My commute to the hospital did double as I now live 9 minutes away. But there was never really any other option then to stay in this great city that has welcomed my family so openly.

As always is the case in this field we said goodbye to many special family members. And we found new families for hundreds of puppies, kittens, and older friends who needed a home. We added more sophisticated blood machines to our lab, and we added home visits to our growing list of services. I think what I am most proud of in 2013 was the relationship we developed with the Humane Society of Barron County. The summer “Like us on Facebook to help spay and neuter shelter pets” was a fantastic success. We generated over 1000 likes which translated into 21 free spays/neuters. We still owe then 5 or 6 more; I believe 3 are scheduled in the next two weeks. The last dog we did was adopted before we could even post a picture. Success stories like that are what make the Animal Hospital of Chetek such an enjoyable place to be a part of us. And all of you help make that happen. If we did not have such an outstanding client base, there would be no way for us to donate so many surgeries. Ultimately our success is fueled by your dedication to your pets, and for that I thank you.

Sincerely,

Kamran Khan, DVM

12-28-13